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Nature Cat: The Movie
Nature Cat: The Movie, also known as The Cat of Nature in some countries, is a 2017 American-Canadian hand-drawn/CGI animated musical adventure comedy family film based on the PBS Kids educational animated television series ''Nature Cat''. It stars the regular television cast of Taran Killam, Kate McKinnon, Bobby Moynihan, Kate Micucci, and Kenan Thompson. New additions to the cast include current and former SNL cast members Cecily Strong, Vanessa Bayer, Nasim Pedrad, Bill Hader, and Maya Rudolph. Produced by Annapurna Pictures, Spiffy Pictures, SNL Studios, 9 Story Media Group, and DreamWorks Animation, and distributed by Universal Pictures. The film had its premiere at the Chicago International Film Festival on June 19, 2017, screened at the Microsoft Theater on July 7, 2017, and was theatrically released in the U.S., Mexico, Canada on July 14, 2017. The film received positive reviews from critics and has grossed $650 million against a $45 million budget. Plot Fred (Taran Killam) is a house cat who dreams of exploring the great outdoors. After he transformed into Nature Cat, he decides to start the day exploring with his three friends, Squeeks (Kate McKinnon), Hal (Bobby Moynihan), and Daisy (Kate Micucci). Meanwhile, Fred's owner, Dave (Darrell Hammond) watches the news on TV, and becomes shocked when he finds out about the disease called "Humanious animailopius", known as "Talking syndrome", in which animals have human instincts and can talk, in which Dave decides to put them up for adoption. After overhearing, Nature Cat and his friends decide to look around in the forest so that humans won't be able to see them talk. However, a fat purple cat, Ronald (Kenan Thompson) begins a plan to remove all of the trees, plants, animals, and everything from nature for good. While walking in the forest, the four begin to recall memories of all of the great things they did during the past, such as replacing plastic bags with bags made from cloth, using pumpkins for more things, and making Valentine gifts out of reusable items. Soon, they noticed that they have done so much to help their community and helping nature. So, the four decide to send a message out to the city. However, they manage to escape when Nature Cat sees his owners, Dave, and his wife Amanda (Nicole Sullivan), and his two children, Eric (Max Charles) and Julie (Ava Acres). At the police station, Dave is talking with two officers to try to get the pets back. The two officers agreed to help and would call animal control. After the Reef family left, Nature Cat and his friends would have to get to the TV station to broadcast their message to the entire city. With the help of the GPS on Daisy's smartphone, the four count the blocks while on the subway train and finally arrive at the TV station. After arriving, they decide to use the disguise to avoid getting past the huge crowd of people without them seeing that they have talking syndrome. They look at the TV screens and find out about Ronald's plan of becoming an industrialist. After overhearing, the four decide to get home. However, some trouble with the police and the animal control came up, so Nature Cat and his friends use camouflage so that the officers don't see them. They then encounter Sadie, in which she then thanks Nature Cat for recreating the playground that he and his friends recreated for her. The hawk shows up and gives them a way of going back home, which is going south one block, and then going east over the bridge for two blocks. Along the way, Nature Cat soon falls in love with a female cat, named Catalina (Cecily Strong), in which she is also a nature explorer, but also likes drawing, sketching, and painting pictures, as well as making animations on her YouTube channel, and even making documentaries about nature. After that, Hal and Squeeks then went to get a bucket of water from the stream and then dumped it onto Nature Cat, waking him up. As they reached his house, Dave soon begins to tell Nature Cat and his friends that he has no choice but to put him and his friends up for adoption. However, Eric and Julie soon explain what it really means to put someone up for adoption. Daisy also explains all the great things they did to help animals care about and save nature. Nature Cat then explains that even though they still have talking syndrome, they still have the same features, such as still being afraid of water, and that Hal still has his doghouse and his chew toy, Mr. Chewinsky. Soon, Dave decides to make a portal to the cartoon world so that Nature Cat and his friends would live there instead of the real world. A few hours later in the cartoon world, Nature Cat then turns on the portal to the real world. They tell Dave and his family about how the cartoon world was and that they are just going to check on Ronald, to make sure that he is not doing anything bad. The four soon begin to think of a way to stop Ronald from trying to destroy nature for good, in which they then begin to spy on Ronald to make sure that he will never do something bad. The four then spy on Ronald, and it appears that he is calling industrialists on the phone about getting rid of nature and he tells them to come to his backyard. After Ronald hung up, he began to think about why many people call him a bad kitty, thinking it was because he's just lazy to be good and stay busy being evil. Nature Cat comes up with a plan by wearing armor, and having their bow and arrows. When they approach Ronald, his guards capture them and put them in a sack and give it to the animal control. Meanwhile, Catalina suddenly overhears this and then realizes that she is also a pussycat ninja. She gets reinforcements to rescue Nature Cat and his friends. She rescues them out of the van and onto a grassy hole. Soon, Hal then falls in love with a female dog, named Hayley (Vanessa Bayer), in which she also heard about Ronald's plan. Meanwhile, Ronald is with the human industrialists at the meeting room and telling about the plan. His plan includes cutting down more trees and expel and kill animals. Back at the forest, Nature Cat then comes up with another plan, which includes disgusing as guards, and entering Ronald's house to foil Ronald's plans by burning all of the files for his plans down, including the one that will get rid of nature for good, so that Ronald will be caught by the animal control and getting sent to animal jail. The group agrees, and Catalina decides to make costumes of guards, meaning that she's also a costume designer and seamstress. Catalina soon sets up her portable costume-making machine, and drew the first design on the desk. The machine scans the design and it spawns a costume made from cloth. The rest of the group then continue sewing the costumes of guards and they put it on. The five then run toward the gate to Ronald's backyard to try to blend in with his guards. Nature Cat decides that he needs some animals to distract them, so he takes out a fish from his pocket and places it on the ground, and one of the guards pick it up. All of a sudden, a gigantic herd of 9,000 bears appear and chase after the fish and break into Ronald's backyard. All of the workers run inside Ronald's house, however, the bears break into the house and attacked the workers. After the attack, Nature Cat, Catalina, Squeeks, Hal, and Daisy sneak into Ronald's backyard through the gate and into his house, however along the way, they hear moaning, which was coming from one of Ronald's injured workers. Nature Cat then confronts the worker to tell him about Ronald's plan. Soon, Nature Cat tried to get more information, but the worker soon died, causing Nature Cat to burst into tears. Hal says that its beautiful and decides to give Nature Cat an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, which made him and everyone feel better. Nature Cat and his friends then burst into Ronald's room, and soon takes out his sword, in which Ronald then takes out his, and the two begin a sword fight. Ronald tried to slice Nature Cat in half, but he dodged and Ronald missed. After about two dodges, Nature Cat managed to slice one of Ronald's whiskers off, and then punch him in the face. Nature Cat yells out "Touché!", and then swung his sword and its blade sliced through Ronald's fur. Ronald then shoves Nature Cat backward and slashes at him with his sword. He then tried to grab Nature Cat's hat. Nature Cat then runs up and kicks Ronald off of his chest. He then tried to get away from Ronald, but Ronald suddenly appears, leading to Daisy kicking Ronald out of the house through the window, landing in the mud. Catalina then uses her ninja skills to karate chop at Ronald. She takes out her sword and begins to sword-fight with Ronald. The fight ends when Nature Cat strikes his sword and pierces it in Ronald's stomach. Ronald screams in pain and drops his sword. A short distance away, Squeeks, Daisy, Hal, and Catalina saw the fight. Nature Cat turns to his friends, and throws his sword away. Behind him, unseen, Ronald has picked up his sword again and crept up the rock to get the drop on Nature Cat. Nature Cat whirls and moves out of the stone’s way. Ronald raises his sword to strike and tries to kill Nature Cat, but Catalina pulls a dagger from the pocket of her dress. She throws her dagger at Ronald's back. Ronald screams in pain, and he topples from the top of the stone and he plummets down to the ground dead. With Ronald dead, nature had been saved, and the film ends as Nature Cat celebrates and enters a relationship with Catalina. Hayley then tells Hal that she's going to have puppies. Nature Cat then ends the film with a goodbye message saying to the audience that they will see him in a direct-to-video sequel. In a mid-credits scene, Hal and Hayley have had their kids, one year later, and when they arrived home, their kids were seen bouncing on the crib. In a post-credits scene, Ronald is still lying dead, until an angel dog came down and resurrected him. Soon Ronald wakes up and tells the audience that he is not dead for the whole series, just the film, and he apologizes and promises to never hurt nature again. He then suddenly died again, presumably until the second season of Nature Cat. Voice Cast * Taran Killam as Nature Cat. Nicola Hartley served as the supervising animator for Nature Cat. * Kate McKinnon as Squeeks. Nick McDowall served as the supervising animator for Squeeks. * Bobby Moynihan as Hal. Kristin Williams served as the supervising animator for Hal. * Kate Micucci as Daisy. Matthew DaSilva served as the supervising animator for Daisy. * Kenan Thompson as Ronald. Danielle Keats served as the supervising animator for Ronald. * Cecily Strong as Catalina. Kyle Van Staden served as the supervising animator for Catalina. ** Bronte D'Acquisto as young Catalina * Vanessa Bayer as Hayley. Jenelle Cardinal served as the supervising animator for Hayley. * Nasim Pedrad as Katie * Bill Hader as Derek * Maya Rudolph as Karina * Chris Parnell as Sir Galahad / additional voices * Stephanie D'Abruzzo as Alice the Butterfly / additional voices * Bobby Lee as MC Ferret * Leslie Carrara-Rudolph as Doris the Raccoon / Sadie / Bubbles * Joey Mazzarino as Cruiser the Squirrel / additional voices * Molly Shannon as Woman with stroller * Kyla Rae Kowalewski as Kitty * Darrell Hammond as Dave Reef. Anthony Alves served as the supervising animator for Dave. * Nicole Sullivan as Amanda Reef. Heejung Yun served as the supervising animator for Amanda. * Max Charles as Eric Reef. Piotr Gajewicz served as the supervising animator for Eric. * Ava Acres as Julie. Sarah Goran served as the supervising animator for Julie. Hal and Hayley's kids are voiced by Hayden Rolence, Sadie Sink, Felix Avitia, Abby Ryder Fortson and Jacob Ewaniuk during the mid-credits scene. Other additional voices include Adam Rudman, David Rudman, Joey Rudman, Geo G., Jennifer Barnhart, Carol Binion, Matthew Brooks, Tyler Bunch, Vicki Kenderes-Eibner, Eric Engelhardt, James Godwin, B.J. Guyer, Liz Joyce, Peter Linz, Noel MacNeal, Amanda Maddock, Anney McKilligan, Mala M., John Pavlik, and Bryant Young. Production Development During production of Nature Cat in 2015, Adam Rudman and David Rudman were asked if they could make a feature film based on the series. Adam replied "Well, we've just premiered the first episode of the series, but we'll get to that eventually." After the premiere of the first episode "Heartthrob Hamster/Astronuts", David Rudman stated that the film was in early development by Spiffy Pictures to be released in 2017. In December 2015, Annapurna Pictures announced it will be producing the film, with its founder, Megan Ellison, serving as screenwriter and executive producer. Also, it was announced that Lisa Henson and Brian Henson would serve as executive producers. Casting In January 2016, Spiffy Pictures announced that the film, titled Nature Cat: The Movie began production, with the show's cast signed to reprise their roles. In February 2016, Cecily Strong was cast to do the voice of Catalina, Nature Cat's love interest, and in March 2016, Vanessa Bayer joined to voice Hayley, Hal's love interest. The following month, Nasim Pedrad, Bill Hader, and Maya Rudolph joined the cast. Animation The hand-drawn animation was done at 9 Story Media Group, and the CGI animated characters, backgrounds, and props was done by Brown Bag Films, 9 Story's subsidiary. Hal and Hayley's dream sequences were done by Canadian cartoonist, Michel Gagné. David and Adam Rudman hired him to animate the dream sequences of Hal and Hayley. The film's animation techniques are a combination of traditional hand-drawn animation, 2D digital Flash animation, and 3D computer-generated imagery. Visual effects Most of the visual effects were handled by CA Square, Digital Domain, and Sony Pictures Imageworks. Early tests began in December 2015, with the majority of the effects work wrapping up in August 2016. Live-action filming Coming soon! Post production Coming soon! Music Stuart Kollmorgen, who works on the music for the series, announced that he will be working and collaborating with a live orchestra to compose the film's score and songs. Software The software used for this movie are Toon Boom Harmony (for 2D animation, clean-up, in-betweens, 2D effects, and digital ink & paint), Toon Boom Storyboard Pro (for storyboards), Adobe Animate (for 2D animation, building, rigging, and in-betweens), Adobe Photoshop (for visual development concept art, 2D layouts, backgrounds, 2D animation, clean-up, and in-betweens), Autodesk Maya (for CGI modeling, texturing, rigging, simulation, layout, animation, lighting, and rendering), Pixar's Renderman (for CGI simulation and rendering), Adobe After Effects (for visual effects and compositing), The Foundry Nuke (for compositing), Houdini Effects (for CGI effects), Avid Media Composer (for video editing), Audacity (for sound and dialogue editing), and Avid Pro Tools (for music editing and arrangements). Toon Boom Harmony has been used in most of the 2D animated sequences, while Adobe Photoshop is used for the rest of the 2D animated sequences. Marketing Trailers The film's teaser trailer was released on June 25, 2016 and was attached to theatrical showings of Disney/Pixar's Finding Dory. A second teaser trailer was released on September 23, 2016 and was attached to theatrical showings of Storks. The film's first theatrical trailer was released on February 24, 2017, and was attached to theatrical showings of Rock Dog. A second theatrical trailer was released on April 7, 2017, and was attached to theatrical showings of Smurfs: The Lost Village, A third trailer was released on June 16, 2017, and was attached to theatrical showings of Disney/Pixar's Cars 3. ''The following month, TV spots also aired as well. Merchandise Playmates Toys released plush toys and figurines based on the film in July 2017, to concide with the film's release. A video game based on the film title, ''Nature Cat: The Video Game was released on August 15, 2016. McDonald's also produced 10 toys in their Happy Meals that were given away if anyone bought a kids' meal with an adult's paid order. Scholastic released five books for the film: Nature Cat: The Movie: The Junior Novel, Nature Cat's Amazing Nature Adventure, Nature Cat: The Movie: The Essential Guide, Ronald's Revenge!, and Nature Cat: The Movie: The Story Book. Rating Nature Cat: The Movie was rated G by the Motion Picture Association of America, making it the first animated film to receive that rating in 2 years since 2015's The Peanuts Movie. Screenshots Screenshots of the film were presented at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in June. Release The film was released on July 14, 2017. The film also had its premiere at the Chicago International Film Festival on June 19, 2017, was screened at the Microsoft Theater on July 7, 2017, The film also had a television airing on PBS Kids on July 21, 2017, and on Family Chrgd on August 4, 2017. Home media The film was released on Digital HD on September 5, 2017 and on DVD, Blu-ray, and Blu-ray 3D on September 26, 2017 by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Special features include deleted scenes, games such as "Make Your Own Guard Costume", "Find the Directions", and "Interactive Storybook", and the music videos of "Electric City", "You Get Me", and "Dog Gone Dance". Video games A video game, titled Nature Cat: The Video Game, was released on August 15, 2016 and was published by Activision and developed by Vicarious Visions. A second tie-in video game, [[Nature Cat: Save Nature!|''Nature Cat: Save Nature!]] was announced to accompany the film's release. It was developed by Ensemble Studios, which was shut down by Microsoft in 2009, but was acquired and relaunched by NicThic Interactive Studios in 2014 and it was released on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii U, and Xbox One on July 11, 2017 in North America and on August 11, 2017 in Europe. As Microsoft is not publishing the game after they shut down Ensemble, NicThic Interactive Studios published the tie-in game. Reception Critical response On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 79%, based on 175 reviews, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "''Nature Cat: The Movie ''has a brilliant story to go with the usual hand-drawn animation, and with a creative idea of "talking syndrome", and Ronald being the film's antagonist." On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating, the film has a score of 69 out of 100, based on 40 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale. Box office As of August 10, 2017, ''Nature Cat: The Movie ''has grossed $520 million in the United States and Canada and $130 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $650 million, against a production budget of $45 million, making it currently the fourth highest grossing animated film behind Gingo's Gabriel Garza 3. In the U.S. and Canada, ''Nature Cat: The Movie was released alongside War for the Planet of the Apes and Wish Upon, and is projected to gross $11 million from 3,900 theaters during its opening weekend. It made $4.8 million from Thursday night previews and $64.3 on its first day. Accolades Coming soon! Direct-to-video sequels In March 2016, despite the fact that the film is still in production, PBS Kids had confirmed that a sequel to Nature Cat: The Movie was scheduled for a theatrical release. Taran Killam, the voice of Nature Cat, stated that the film would have a 2019 or 2020 release. On October 18, 2016, following the announcement of PBS Kids green-lighting Nature Cat for two more seasons, David Rudman announced that the theatrical sequel would split into three direct-to-video sequels. Not only that, Adam Rudman reported that one third of elements would be put into each script for each sequel. On May 31, 2016, it was announced that three 45-minute direct-to-video sequels have been planned and will take place straight after the movie. In August 2016, the title for the first direct-to-video sequel was revealed, entitled Nature Cat and the Lost Treasure, is set for an early 2018 release. The next two sequels also had their titles revealed, which are Nature Cat and the Purr-fect Performances and Nature Cat and the Secret of Sunset Park, which are scheduled for releases in late 2018 and early 2019, respectively. On April 3, 2017, PBS confirmed the release date for Nature Cat and the Lost Treasure to be January 2, 2018. On April 12, 2017, it has been confirmed that a fourth direct-to-video sequel has been planned, and will be called, ''Nature Cat and the Legend of Mighty Mountain'', scheduled for a late 2019 release. Gallery See Nature Cat: The Movie/Gallery Credits See Nature Cat: The Movie/Credits Transcripts For the main transcript, see Nature Cat: The Movie/Transcript For the trailer transcripts, see Nature Cat: The Movie/Trailer transcripts